RED WEAPON - Info and Data Sheets

[Phil Holland]

In an effort to keep things a bit more organized as there's a lot of discussion here on Reduser the last couple of days and I'm also getting phone calls and emails regarding Weapon, I'll be keeping all of the officially "known" information here to hopefully save everybody scouring threads for nuggets of "truth".


Thus far Jarred has confirmed a few things that are useful for Mysterium-X and Dragon owners to know regarding Weapon. He's sharing this information earlier than expected primarily to give everybody a head start to plan accordingly.

- Red Weapon is an Upgrade for Red Dragon cameras. You must own or upgrade to Dragon to be eligible for the Upgrade.
- Epic and Scarlet Dragon Camera Brains are eligible for the Weapon Upgrade.
- Mysterium-X to Dragon Upgrades will be ending around late June 2015. Upgrades have been running since 2013.
- From Monday February 23rd you will be able to upgrade from Mysterium-X to Dragon again at the price of $9500.
- Red Weapon Upgrades will have priority based on the time stamp of your order, and Carbon Fiber lines will have priority.
- Red Weapon Upgrades are expected to begin around Summer/Fall 2015.
- Red Weapon will be using MINI-MAG Red Media and it's not planned to support the 1.8" REDMAG Media likely due write speeds increasing and form factor.
- Existing DSMC Lens Mounts will be compatible with Red Weapon.
- There will be an Epic Dragon to Carbon Weapon Upgrade Path
- For those with security concerns there will be a "stealth" Weapon option without the Weapon branding engraved on it.
- Red Weapon will have a full unveiling at NAB 2015. (Or sooner if Jarred gets keyboard trigger happy again!)

** As for what exactly all of this is, we don't officially know just yet.

Weapon is a natural progression of our company going from sensor > body > sensor > body. Its the same path we have taken since day one. R1 came along, then we made the new MX sensor. Epic came along with a new body and used the same MX sensor. Then the Dragon sensor came along and it worked with the same body as Epic. Now there is a new body, Weapon, and it follows the same path. Then there will be a new sensor that comes next, and then a new body after that. Rinse and Repeat.

As for requesting an Overlap... that's not fair. As I already said Epic MX is more than 5 years old, and its a generation behind Dragon. There has been a huge overlap. A long long overlap with lots of opportunity to upgrade. We can't keep every generation of camera going forever.

Power and Power Modules

- REDVOLTs, REDVOLT XL, and RED BRICKS all work with Weapon. However, there will be new power modules for Weapon.
- It sounds like with these new modules we won't need things like the Module Adapter any more.
- It is unclear if all previous Module with work or not with Weapon.
- It has been hinted that the DSMC Side Handle might not be compatible with Weapon, but something new is in the works to replace it.

Display Technology

- Weapon will have a new type of monitoring connection.
- On the Weapon brain there will be 2X LCD/EVF connections on the brain.
- Red is making a Weapon connection to LEMO adapter so current LCD Touch and EVFs are compatible.

Recording Media

- Weapon is not compatible with 1.8" REDMAG Media, it uses MINI-MAG Media however.
- When you trade in your Dragon for the Weapon upgrade include the MINI-MAG Side Module.
- Red is working on a "plan" to assist with those coming from 1.8" REDMAG setups to MINI-MAG. Details unknown as of yet.
- Red has hinted that other capacity MINI-MAG Media cards are in development. Likely a less expensive 256GB-ish model. I'm a 512GB man myself

Miscellaneous Things
- Weapon is smaller in length than current Mysterium-X and Dragon brains.
- We have seen a side view of the camera that hints at some sort of LCD screen camera right. Unclear if this is standard with Weapon or a future accessory.
- All DSMC Lens Mounts are compatible with Weapon. This includes the Motion Mounts as well.
- Current Interchangeable OLPFs will be compatible with Weapon.

Red Rocket-X
- The Red Rocket-X will work on Weapon footage.

Just got really, really official word as there has been some confusion regarding Mysterium-X upgrades.

You cannot have Epic or Scarlet Mysterium-X and pay for the Dragon upgrade and never physically send the camera in and then pay up from the Epic/Scarlet Dragon up to Weapon. This should be a given as it's been explicitly stated, but there's been a few who have been confused.

Weapon is a Dragon upgrade.

There is no direct to Weapon path from Mysterium-X. You must upgrade your camera to Dragon as there are "things" needed for the Weapon upgrade.

Additionally, Serial Number is not a factor in the Weapon upgrade. Fulfillment will be based on the camera type you are trading in, meaning this priority:

1. Carbon Dragon
2. Epic-M Dragon
3. Epic-X Dragon
4. Scarlet Dragon

Then within each group it will be by date and time stamp of your order placed.

This is official, so plan accordingly.

One thing I can confirm. Red has been working rather hard on Weapon.



Thank you Jarred.

Well, it would appear RED's secret Weapon is becoming less secret with each moment leading up to NAB 2015.

Jarred last night spilled some more details about Weapon. And this is big news.

"ProRes"

In the last 24 hours the industry has changed.

ProRes has become an industry standard over the years. This is "huge" for productions that utilize this workflow.

Also, notable. That's a hefty 1TB MINI-MAG.


Just to reiterate something I said after seeing Weapon for the first time:

The last thing I told Jarred when I left RSH last week was "I'm impressed". That takes a hell of a lot to get that out of me.

****Do note, that Weapon is an upgrade for Dragon cameras. Dragon is not going anywhere and is going to be part of the line for a long while:

Of course we are... Epic Dragon and Scarlet Dragon will remain in the line for quite some time.

This is merely the announcement of the Upgrade Path. If you are a Dragon owner you'll have a long while to decide if you are upgrading to Weapon.






Hope that helps simplify things for those searching for the core info.

Sounds like there's a lot more information coming.

I'm very excited about this upgrade.

 

[Christian Edwards]

Discussion: http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?128381-RED-WEAPON-Info-and-Data-Sheets